With our spectacular natural environment combining with our relaxed atmosphere, it's no wonder that business magic happens here in Byron Shire. Oh, and it may also have something to do with the merging of the creative carefree locals and our experienced and new to our area entrepreneurs. We have one of the only places in the world where board shorts, thongs, surfboards and coconut turmeric lattes are the uniforms of the locals and the new business set.
Byron Bay has come to the attention of economists with a 4.8% growth in the small business – which is matched only by metro areas (source: The Northern Rivers Lifestylepreneur Movement 2017). Most of these new Byron businesses are lean and clean sharing the vision of building a sustainable, ethical and global business.
So what makes us more attractive to small business? Well for starters there are the meetups, co-working spaces, traditional incubators and virtual incubators, accelerators, and access to quality university entrepreneur programs. This means that a groundswell of brave new entrepreneurs are born or moving to Byron to access this energy and creativity to create businesses that will flourish and thrive into the future.
What is an incubator?
Business incubators are organisations geared toward speeding up the growth and success of startup and early-stage companies.
The main purpose of an incubator is to help startups to grow. They are collaborative programs which help people solve problems associated with launching a startup by providing a space to work, seed funding, mentoring, training and other benefits.
Incubators vary in their strategies. Some are located in an actual physical space meant to foster networking among entrepreneurs and their coaches. Others operate on a virtual basis. They’re often a good path to capital from investors, state governments and economic-development coalitions.
Incubators sometimes call themselves accelerators instead, often when they’re geared toward jumpstarting businesses that are more developed.
Council met with the sector at a Strategic Business Panel meeting in March 2018 and went on to form a sector Working Group. See the presentation(PDF, 578KB) from the meeting.
If you would like to have your incubator, accelerator or coworking space listed on our website, please contact Tania Crosbie at tania.crosbie@byron.nsw.gov.au.